What happens when you do something really incredible early in your athletic career?
Do you spend the rest of your time trying to recreate that really incredible thing or do you flush it from your memory and move on?
That’s the problem Lauren Schwartz has faced ever since she authored a magical five-games-in-nine-days run two years ago that embodied all the madness of March and led Rice to its first postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament title.
“When I think about that team, I think about a lot of joy,” said Schwartz, now a Washington standout. “That team was such a great team. It was so fun to play for coach [Tina] Langley. Just knowing that we could keep going was exciting. It was hard. That was the COVID year. We were in a bubble. We really just wanted to do it for each other.”
No one did it better than Schwartz, who scored 16 points in the WNIT opener followed by back-to-back 20-point outings. Then, the Owls sophomore star poured in 25 points in the semifinals capped by a 19-point performance in a blowout championship win over Ole Miss and its star Shakira Austin in front of a pro-Rebels crowd in Collierville, Tennessee.
“I was just making everything,” said Schwartz, who averaged 20 points and shot 53.8% from the field, including 53.3% on three-pointers, and was voted to the All-WNIT team. “It was wild. Me and coach go back to that a lot. What was it? I think it was just the process. I really do think I was just focused on the next play and the next possession.
“I didn’t know how far we were going to go in the tournament because the Power Five teams always win. I think it was just process-focused. I was playing a little bit carefree and just doing what I needed to do for the team. I got the looks that I got. That’s what I’m hoping to do in this WNIT.”
Schwartz is looking to recreate more magic in the WNIT with Washington (16-14), which advanced to the second round and plays New Mexico (21-12) at 5 p.m. Sunday at Alaska Airlines Arena.
But it doesn’t have to be like the last time. Schwartz doesn’t have to be the star, but she does want to win another title.
And she thinks she knows how to do it.
“You can’t get far in this tournament unless you get past the next game,” Schwartz said. “You got to focus on the next game. That’s all the matters. You got to be locked in. Thankfully, I think everyone is really mentally here and excited about it and really wants to know what it’s like to keep going deep.
“This tournament is just so cool. You have the hopes of going to the NCAA tournament, but then you get to play in this tournament and you get to build up what we have coming for next season. It’s focusing. It’s playing for the seniors and just really enjoying every single day because it could end at any moment.”
Make no mistake, Schwartz wants to deliver a Pac-12 championship and NCAA tournament appearance for the Huskies next year.
But that can wait.
“I want to be here for my teammates,” Schwartz said. “I want to be here for the seniors, so I’m going to have that mentality of wanting to win for them. It’s just a joy. We all love each other so much. … We really do, and we just want to keep playing for each other and with each other. It’s so fun to be home and playing with them again.”
Admittedly, Schwartz struggled offensively Thursday while tallying five points on 2-for-8 shooting, including 1 of 6 on three-pointers. She also finished with five rebounds, two assists and three turnovers in 34½ minutes.
The Huskies didn’t necessarily need Schwartz’s scoring in their last outing, but her leadership has been invaluable considering she’s one of just three players with previous nonconference postseason tournament experience.
“Having all of those memories and being back in the WNIT is something that’s so cool because I feel like I can share that experience with these teammates around me because they haven’t been in postseason before,” Schwartz said. “It’s so fun to share that knowledge. Share what could come and what could happen. These last two weeks of practice have been all about that.”
The return to the WNIT has allowed Schwartz to relive a shining moment from her collegiate career in which the 5-foot-11 forward has scored more than 1,000 points.
“She played really great in the WNIT,” Langley said when asked about Schwartz’s 2021 performance. “She’s a competitor through and through. Just a warrior on the floor. She’s locked in every single play. She brings experience and I think that’s important for this team.
“That constant drive never turns off for a second. It doesn’t matter if it’s a practice drill or a shoot-around or film session. She’s an incredible example of the process and how to stay completely focused. She had a lot of success in that tournament and we played some really great teams.”
It’s not as if Schwartz fell off the proverbial cliff since her last WNIT outing. She’s averaged 9.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists the past two years at UW, which is similar to her statistics (11-4-2) her first two years at Rice.
But Schwartz, who won All-Pac-12 honorable mention honors this season, has yet to duplicate that incredible WNIT run with Rice.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to deal with a little bit,” she said. “That’s always going to be in the back of my mind. It’s two years later. It’s a whole different atmosphere. I’m literally in a different place. I’m with different people. Everything is different. Different role. I just think I got to play for my teammates and things will come and things will happen because that’s exactly how I played two years ago.”
Truth be told, Schwartz’s scintillating five-game run immediately followed an equally impressive eight-game stretch, which included a career-high 27-point performance, toward the end of the season in which she averaged 16.3 points and shot 55.9% from the field.
Had she remained at Rice, Schwartz would have likely vied for Conference USA Player of the Year honors and league scoring titles, but she followed Langley to help rebuild a Washington program that hadn’t had a winning season since 2017 before they arrived.
“I’m just constantly striving for goals and trying to challenge myself,” said Schwartz, a Union, Kentucky, native. “Coming out to Seattle was a challenge just in its own. I’d never been to the West Coast. This is my first time. … So, it’s just challenging myself and trusting my gut.
“Plus, I know how coach can build a program. I just wanted to be a part of it because I knew it was something special at Rice and I wanted to be a part of it here.”